The Anatomy and History of The Looms
by Anna Brelin
Summary: Ever wanted to know more about the Looms? This short tutorial will tell you about how the Looms work as well as there history.


**THE ANATOMY AND HISTORY OF THE LOOMS** :

Written by Anna Brelin

 **INTRO** :

At the height, length and width of a double decker bus, The Looms are shining metallic structures which are used by the Gallifreyans to reproduce. However, their overall use by the Gallifreyans is dominantly for emergency purposes only when the natural way is not so successful. The outside of the Looms look like a tall, metallic, polished silver-like structure, with a control panel on the side of it midway down with two sponge-like applicators on both ends of the control panel. There is a set of stairs running up the back of the structure and a door on the roof which can be pulled open to where you can see the interior workings of a Loom.

The interior of a Loom is rather interesting because there is so many things going on in the inside of these structures at any given time, thus it's a bit difficult to explain to you in simple details as to what its interior looks like and what happens within it. But we will try our best not to get into the details too much to the point where it gets a little bit too complicated.

Inside each of these Looms, there is a large mesh of organic fibers, known as weaving strands, which look similar to a spider's web but is somewhat less organized. The atmosphere inside each of these Looms is like what you would find in a heavily steamed up bathroom, bright in the way like when your bathroom light shines through the steam sort of brightness, rather peaceful and serene atmosphere one should say. There is a layer of organic floating white cloud-like material which stands in the air like that of steam, sitting over a thicker seemingly solid layer or bed of organic white cloud-like material which blankets the bottom of inside of the Loom.

Up in the far right corner of the interior of the Loom, there is an area of thicker floating organic white cloud-like material which surrounds a device that stores the consciousness (memories, souls) of those Gallifreyans that are being re-loomed (Of course, the use of that area of the Loom is used only by those Gallifreyans that are being re-loomed. Those who are being loomed for the first time have no use for that part of the Loom).

 **Author's Note:** _For those who have read the Lungbarrow novel, you would already realize and recognize the purpose of these structures whereas those who haven't would need a bit of explaining about it. But we must point out that the way Looms are described in the novel is a bit different from how we are going to explain them to you._

There are three different main kinds or types of Looms in existence. There are the Rassilon Looms (which are mentioned in the _Lungbarrow_ novel) and the Biological Looms, which are newer and more advanced than the Rassilon Looms. Biological Looms are much more reliable and far less likely to break down when compared to Rassilon Looms. The third main kind of Loom, the Motherhouse Looms, are actually a type of Biological Loom that has the ability to weave both infants and young adults into existence. The purpose of the young adults woven from the Looms is to become guards or soldiers. The Motherhouse Looms were used extensively during the Time War in order to keep the battle lines well stocked with Gallifreyan soldiers. All Loom types, including the sub-types, can and do weave infant Gallifreyans, with exception to the Livestock Looms, which are used to loom livestock into existence. There are also several sub-types of Looms in existence, one type of which was used to loom lifestock into existence in order to keep a fresh supply of food present at all times. However, lifestock looms were later banned by the Time Lords.

The Rassilon Looms (as pointed out in the _Lungbarrow_ novel), are used as a method of reproduction by the Gallifreyans, as are all Loom types. But as pointed out earlier in the discussion about Looms, the use of both types of Looms are mainly for emergency purposes and only used when the natural method isn't as successful as it normally is.

 **HISTORY OF THE LOOMS:**

Back around the end of The Dark Time of Ancient Gallifrey, about 10 million years ago, the last of the Pythia rulers, the Queen of the Pythia who was named Bathsherda, was said to have placed a sort of curse on the Time Lord people which was later known as the Pythia Death-Curse. Now, it is said that this so called curse caused all the Gallifreyans on Gallifrey to become sterile and unable to conceive and give birth.

It is also said that the unborn that were present at the time of the curse's placement died in there parent's wombs, which we would say died by miscarriage. Later on however, it was discovered that the curse wasn't actually a curse at all, but was caused by a then unnamed virus which caused everyone to lose their ability to conceive and give birth. This virus was brought into existence by the Pythia through use of their organic genetic engineering methods. The virus was then placed in a genetic bomb, which, upon the overthrowing of the Pythia, was detonated, causing the virus to become airborne, infecting everyone that was within a 50 mile range of the bomb. The virus would soon spread, until finally it had infected up to 3 quarters of the whole Gallifreyan population.

It was then during the early years of the Modern Gallifreyan era that this virus was named Letherid's Disease and where not long after that, a cure was found and formulated by ( _Ready for this?_ ) an ancestor of the Doctor, Datheral Nathaliganies, who was a medical scientist who specialized in viral infections.

Datheral, over a progressive amount of months, tested various chemicals as well as testing himself with some these chemical concoctions, in order to find a cure for the Letherid's Disease so as to cure himself and the whole Gallifreyan populous of the sickness, who continued to use Rassilon Looms as there predominant method of reproduction up to about 9.3 million years ago until Datheral found the cure and gave back the Gallifreyan people there ability to conceive and give birth.

Since being cured of the sickness, the whole Gallifreyan populous has become able to conceive and give birth again just as before prior to the so called 'curse' being bestowed. So in these days, both the Rassilon Looms and Biological Looms are predominantly used for emergency purposes only.

 **HOW THE LOOMS WORK:**

The functioning and the establishment of The Looms

Each Family House (as there are 500 Family Houses to 1 Primary House) has their own Family House Loom, with its own DNA programmed into it. Each Primary House also has its own Primary House Loom, which holds the DNA of each Family House in the entire Family House Community. In other words, Each Primary House houses The Community Loom, in case the Family House Loom of a certain Family House malfunctions in some way. It, like The Family House Looms, is used for emergency purposes only.

It is only the DNA of the family that the Family House Loom belongs to that is present inside the Family House Loom. Whenever new family members are needed, one may simply program the Loom to make more family members from the DNA stored within the Loom itself. Applying only to those Gallifreyan families that are only able to reproduce by use of Rassilon Looms, those who are born or loomed from a Rassilon Loom are considered no more than biologically related cousins to the rest of the family, loomed into and raised in a family of biologically related cousins. The older cousins of the family are in charge of caring and raising their infant cousins that have been loomed from the mesh of their family's Loom and then born from it.

There are no proper parents or grandparents in a family of cousins. However, there are some accounts of some cousins in a family of cousins being called aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters in some Family Houses which use only a Rassilon Loom to reproduce. But despite some of them sometimes being called aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters, which would apply to some of the older adult members of a family of cousins, they are still just considered biologically related cousins to one another.

However, when applied to those Gallifreyan families which are only able to reproduce by use of a Biological Loom, the family structure is set up somewhat differently. In such a family that uses Biological Looms to reproduce, there are indeed proper biologically related family members – parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and so on, just like in any family that is able to conceive and gives birth to their family members.

But as mentioned earlier in this tutorial, The Looms of both types are predominantly used for emergency purposes or when a certain family or couple has no other means of reproducing due to either a complication, by choice or simply because they are a family that has lost their ability to reproduce naturally even though they have been cured of the sickness that had once sterilized the whole Gallifreyan population so long ago.

Unlike in the case of a Rassilon Loom which has the DNA of the family it belongs to already programmed within it when it was constructed, the DNA of the family that a Biological Loom belongs to is not normally kept within it and therefore, whenever it is used, a Biological Loom has to be programmed manually, giving it all the DNA it needs to produce new family members. And just like in a Rassilon Loom, new infant family members are woven from an organic mesh of DNA that had been fed into the weaving strands. With couples reproducing by use of a Biological Loom, blood from both the father and the mother is taken and then fed into the applicators located on the control panel, with the DNA from the father going into one applicator and the DNA of the mother going into the other.

From there, the DNA from both parents are absorbed through the sponge-like material of the applicators and then fed into the weaving strands, where then the DNA of both parents is brought together at the point (known as the Base Weave) where the weaving strands weave the mesh from which a new family member will be created. Blood and nutrients circulate through the weaving strands as the new offspring is being woven. It takes about 2 to 3 weeks for a new family member to be born from a Loom (unlike the 7 months needed to produce a full term Gallifreyan the natural way. Unborn natural born of Gallifreyans develop much faster than human unborn do).

Once fully weaved, the newborn is broken away from the mesh by the Loom itself and then floated to the end of the Loom where it is pushed out via. Through an artificial birth canal and vulva (coming out much like it would if pushed out by a birthing parent. The artificial birth canal and vulva are not made of artificial material, but of woven, grown organic material). The offspring is pushed down it and out through the artificial vulva and into the world, emerging from the Loom as a new family member and then brought into the outside world where then there parents can collect them and take them to their Family House nursery.

Each Family House Community of 500 Family Houses is ruled over and governed by a Primary House. And just like in the case of a Family House, each Primary House has its own Primary or Community Loom (Or Heart Loom) located in the heart of the Primary House at the center of each of these communities. Depending on the Primary House, the Primary House Loom can either be a Biological Loom or a Rassilon Loom, containing samples of all the DNA of every single Family House that belongs to the Family House Community of the Primary House.

This gives extra assurance that a family of a particular Family House will continue on long after its own Family House Loom has broken down. When replacing a broken down Loom, a family is able to extract a copy of their family's DNA strand from the Primary House Loom, where then the copy can be fed into the replacement Family House Loom. Those Gallifreyan families that are transitioning from Rassilon Loom to Biological Loom will feed a copy of their family's DNA strand into the new Loom, to where they can either access the DNA already present in the Loom or use the normal method used on Biological Looms of manually feeding the DNA into the Loom.

When it comes down to it, it simply just depends on the Family House and the community it sits in that determines the type of Loom they use, which varies quite often among all the Family House Communities that exist on Gallifrey. Extract Loom biogs, which are collected from all the Looms on the planet Gallifrey, are stored within the Matrix and are accessed via. by the Matrix. The extract biog of womb-borns are usually collected upon their birth. (However, in the Doctor's case, his exact biog would not be collected until he was about 8 years old, when he was placed before the untempered schism).

 **EARLY LIFE DEVELOPMENT AND EARLY PRE-ACADEMIC LEARNING**

The average gestation period for a womb-born Gallifreyan, born from a parent, is 7 months, while the normal gestation period for a loom-born, born from a Loom, is nearly a month. For womb-borns, during the first 5 months in the womb, the unborn Gallifreyan is 'quiet', developing inside the womb. At around 5 months inside the womb, the birthing parent will begin to 'hear' the unborn Gallifreyan inside them, mentally feeling their emotions and feelings. It is in this way, through feelings and emotions, that the birthing parent knows how their unborn child or children are feeling, their needs and wants. This communication continues, first only with the birthing parent for the last 2 months of gestation. After birth, this communication is extended to the other parent, then to the closest relatives, such as brothers and sisters.

For loom-borns, it's a similar situation. During their time being woven in the Loom, the unborn Loomlings will communicate with the other Loomlings in the Loom with them, as well as with the Loomlings in other Looms nearby. This communication between Loomlings starts at around two weeks within the Loom, leaving the last two weeks within the Loom to communicate with one another. Then after the Loomling is born from the Loom, this communication is extended to the parents or chosen caretakers, then the closest relatives, etc.

 **Rassilon** : " _It is said that a Gallifreyan's brain develops faster than any other part of their body. It is why even at the age of 2 or 3, a Gallifreyan infant of that age can calculate the basics of Time Equation while still in their cribs, but yet they still act like their age on the outside until they reach around 5 or 6 years old. We Gallifreyans pride in pre-academic learning, using brainbuffering, complex mathematical games and holographic books to start a Gallifreyan child on the right foot. It is said that all Gallifreyans are born thinking, ready to take on the world and in a matter of speaking that is true..._ "

Brainbuffering is often used to ready or prepare a Gallifreyan child at around the age of 3 years old to the rigors of Academy learning. A Brainbuffering Machine has a headset attached to it that is placed on the head of the child which feeds information and data into their brains. This, along with a variety of learning games and holographic books, along regular books and demonstrative learning, helps prepare the young Gallifreyan for the Academy. As they grow and develop their learning abilities, more complex tests and games are applied. Brainbuffering continues up until they are ready to enter the Academy at the age of 8.

Every Primary House Community is equip with a Brainbuffering Hall, which is like a combination of a library, a playroom and a classroom, containing a vast amount of books, complex games, holographic projectors and other items and devices of interest, used to help young Gallifreyans learn and prepare for the Academy.

 **The 12th Doctor** : " _A Brainbuffering Hall on Gallifrey is basically like Earth's kindergarten, only far, far more complex_."

Gallifreyans are trained and taught at an early age to learn and understand the native language of Gallifrey as well as its alphabet and writing, which is often seen in several forms including Circular Gallifreyan and Old High Gallifreyan. This gives them the ability to read and write in their own native language rather than just Gallifreyan English.

 **The 12th Doctor** : " _Gallifreyan life is often seen as a life of duty and privilege. In the Academy, we were taught to respect and learn from our teachers as well as from chosen older classmates who were put in charge of the younger members of the class. Usually these were older students who showed great promise or were particularly liked by the teacher. These chosen older students, or Discipliners, would often keep the younger students in line and well behaved. The Teacher's Pets I called them. Disciplining the younger students was often handed down to the Discipliners by the teachers who were simply there to teach not discipline. Though there would be times when the teachers would discipline the students in which even the Discipliners themselves weren't immune to. There is a reason why all the students at the Academy wore loose ponytails, so that they would get a good tug from the Discipliners or the teachers whenever we acted up or caused trouble. I had my ponytail tugged quite a few times while I was at the Academy._ "

 **The 10th Doctor** : " _Most of Gallifreyan learning was done through demonstration, games and holographic images rather than what you would call books, pencil and paper. Not that we didn't have those things, it's just that demonstration, games and holographic images made it a lot easier to learn things. But we would have are noses down upon the grindstone now and again when we needed to. The Gallifreyan methods of learning are far more different than what they are on Earth. If you tried learning on my home planet, you would have thought you weren't in Kansas anymore. Alien people, alien methods."_

 **The 9th Doctor** : " _We had books on Gallifrey. What planet doesn't? We learned things from them, we recorded history within them. It's just that we learned far more through other means besides from just books. We had what you would call pencils and paper as well, but again, it wasn't our primary tool of learning on Gallifrey. Games were the key, complex, mathematical games; those were our teachers apart from the real things._ "

 **END OF TUTORIAL**


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